Living The Dream Farm

me and metallika's little doeling

the webmaster andrew, metallika and her beautiful babies!

Today it was cloudy, rainy and not so nice out. What a great day to go into labor! Safe and snug in the little barn, I noticed Metallika, my best goat ever, acting like today was the day. But this has been happening for over a month. Who knows when it is for real??!! Well, apparently today I did. My friend Andrew came up for a visit, and we ate grits with feta, then took off to visit Evan’s new Jersey cows in Turtle Lake. he said “you know it won’t happen unless you leave, so come on over!” We had a fun time admiring his gorgeous pregger cows and fun conversation. Then as we returned to my place, I heard that lil’ baby cry!! Oh yeah, there was Metallika with her two babies, all toddling awkwardly around, mostly dried off and calling to her. How wonderful. Love is my goat momma, licking her babies and then giving me lick-kisses on the cheek! xoxo momma!

ahhh, gotta love baby goats!

This morning I trimmed goat hooves, moved my breeding pairs of ducks into their separate pasture, and found the very first 2010 DUCK EGG! Only one though. Hummm……

the flock last summer, see how they move like a school of fish?

I also set up my PIG PEN in the hoophouse!  Trouble is, there don’t seem to be piglets available right now, but there were bunches last month. I will keep looking. My plan is to get a couple, maybe three, and let them dig up the soil in the hoophouse for me to plant in after they “pig-a-tiller” it up for me! The extra warmth in the hoophouse will be an ideal nursery for my new little piggles. Then they’ll move out of the hoophouse to the front yard’s rotating pasture pen.

I am obsessed with the Large Black Hog, a hertiage breed coming back from near extinction. They are tall, lean and floppy eared. Supposed to be delcious eating too. Contacted a few breeders within a reasonable radius from my place. One guys had some born last July, but I don’t think 200+ lb pigs will fit in the back of my Subaru! I found some folks in Kimball, MN who have three litters coming up. I’ll let you know what I find out.

On my calendar from 2009, the ducks started laying on March 5th. Today, it is the 3rd, and this morning I saw a duck leaving one the nest boxes….oh the suspense! No egg yet, but this means their little internal clocks are working with the longer, brighter days. I look forward to the morning I get to call my restaurants, email my customers, and tell the world that duck eggs are back on the menu!!!!!

As an experiment, I kept about a dozen eggs that were laid last December in my fridge, to see just how long they would stay fresh. I am down to the last two eggs, and each one has remained exquisitely perfect. The whites become a bit more runny as the egg ages. But consider most eggs in the store are already this old when they make their thousand mile journey from factory farm, to warehouse, to distribution center, to the store….so my eggs are good.

One of those last two eggs has fallen victim to my breakfast this morning. All in the name of quality control, you see. I like to use my black bean cooking water to then cook rice in, resulting in a  pleasingly purple tinted rice. This rice, along with some leftover enchilada bits went into the oven covered to warm up. After it got hot, and my chores were done, I put a big mound of my extra sharp aged feta on top, and then cracked my precious duck egg on top of that, and put the bowl under the broiler until the white had set. YUM!